Special Koreans

Yesterday Ajuma and Ajoshi had us over for lunch. We had a nice visit. We are going to miss them so much and know that we have friends for life.

Ajuma with the girls. MacKenzie (left), Madison & Kira
Kris, Ajuma and Bora (Ajuma's daughter).
The gang. BACK: Ajoshi, Cliff FRONT: Ajuma (L to R) Ajuma, Kira, Madison, MacKenzie and me.

Picnic

Cliff got home early from work last week so we decided to have a picnic outdoors. There is this nice little walking area close to the beach. Since it was mid-day we knew it would be fairly quiet. It was so nice. We were actually left alone -- because noone was around. The girls loved eating outside.

Kris and girls.
Kira Anne
Madison May
MacKenzie Kay
Cliff and girls.

Out for dinner

There is a Bulgogi house very close to our apartment that I have wanted to try since we moved here a year ago. Well, finally a year later we found the time and engery to load up the kids and head out for a wonderful dinner. We had bulgogi (grilled beef), rice, spicy soup plus all of the many side dishes they put on the table. Of course they had a little play area for the kids. Man are they going to go into shock when we are back home and they discover that the grocery store doesn't have a playland. Poor things. HA HA

Mommy and Kira
MacKenzie (L), Daddy and Madison.
Family photo. Mommy, Kira, Daddy, Madison (on lap) and MacKenzie

Sidewalk Chalk

Alice (our neighbor) and the girls using sidewalk chalk on the side of an apartment building.

Having fun making pictures.
Kira, MacKenzie (blue hat) and Madison (pink hat)

Friends

We had a great dinner and visit last weekend. Our friends, Malissa, Troy and their daughter Sabina had us over to their beautiful apartment that has a great view of the beach. They are also from Minnesota and working in Korea. Troy works for Nike here in Busan.

The kids eating Korean style. Madison (pink), Kira, Sabina and MacKenzie (purple). I think it was make a funny face event. LOL

Our neighbor girls really like playing with our girls. They came over to our place the other night. Alice (older girl), MacKenzie, Kira, Rebecca and Madison. It is pretty cute because they only speak a little bit of English and they call Cliff Daddy because that is what our girls call him. LOL

New Playland

Thanks to another expat family we were told about a brand new playland not far from our house. This one is even nice for parents. They have tables, chairs and food. We brought the girls one evening after dinner and they thought it was great. Then Ajuma brought us one day last week. When you pay it is for a 3 hour time frame. We ended up staying the whole 3 hours. The kids were in heaven and Ajuma and I had a great time visiting.

MacKenzie playing a little hit the animal on the head game.
Madison sitting on an egg. LOL
Kira bouncing. Look at those pigtails.

Who Needs Hawaii to Have Fun?

This past weekend Jenny and the kids came to spend Saturday and Sunday with us. Her husband, Steve, was on a business trip to Hawaii for the week. We all pretended not to be jealous that he was in such a tropical climate. Instead we enjoyed the city of Busan to the fullest.

Here is Sadie and Kira enjoying the motion censored video aquarium. We found this by accident, but the kids enjoyed it like we had planned it into our day.

There were 3 screens projected on the floor. All three had different fish scenes. Whenever you stepped on a fish it would move out of the way or the water would ripple. I think this lasted about 30 minutes. We pretty much had to force them to leave. They got to ride a train outside the Lotte Department Store. This we also found by accident. The night before Jenny and I headed to the store to pretend we could afford to buy a Louis bag. We saw the event billboard and interpreted Korean the best we could -- okay, we saw a photo of a train and the date. So, we sent Cliff and Benjamin down to the store after breakfast the following day to find out the start time. We were pretty much the first ones in line and kids got to enjoy 3 or 4 rides without having to wait in line.
On our walk to our little park near the river we came across a white puppy. The nice owner let the kids enjoy some puppy love.

Because our time (along with Jenny and family) in Korea is coming to an end I wanted to get as many pictures with our new lifelong friends as I could. I thought this was a gret picture of Jenny and I with our little kidlets. From right to left: Benjamin (almost 6), Sadie (20 months), Jenny (age not important), Madison (4), Kira (2 year 5 months), Me (don't even ask) and MacKenzie (4).

Fun With Stickers

The girls have been having a blast with their sticker books this past week. It is great now that the big girls can get the stickers off themselves. This allows me to help Kira while we all enjoy our conversations together. Kira is even able to get some stickers off. Oh the independence.


Stickers are so much fun (and take up quite a bit of time).
Miss Madison. What can I say -- she wanted "sticker boobies."
MacKenzie Kay. Look at that precious face.
Sweet Baby Kira. She loves to copy her big sisters.

The Tale of Desperaux

One morning last week Ajuma brought the girls and I to "The Tale of Desperaux." She had called all over the city to find a theatre that had it in English. She really is so sweet, caring and giving to our girls (and us). We are so lucky to have crossed paths and will miss her when we head back to the States!

From right to left: Ajuma, Kira, Madison & MacKenzie. This was Kira's first movie in a theatre and Madison and MacKenzie's second. They all were so good and LOVED the movie, popcorn and snacks. They have talked about it every day.